Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World

RSPA 104 (Oriental Manuscripts, British Library)

India Office Library

Jones Collection

Royal Society Arabic and Persian

Contents

A commentary on the seven Muʿallaqāt

Language(s): Arabic

Incipit: بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم. الحمد لله والصلوة والسلام على رسول الله قال أبو جعفر أحمد بن اسماعيل النحوي...
Explicit: الا الا يجهلن أحد علينا *** فنجعل فوق جهل الجاهلينا
Colophon: تم شرح المعلقات بحمد الله وعونه في تاريخ يوم الاثنين أربعة وعشرين من شهر ربيع الأول أحد شهور عام ثمانية وتسعون بعد المائة والألف من الهجرة النبوية على مشرفها أفضل الصلوة وأزكى السلام والتحية نقلناه كما وجدنا نسخته بموجب أمر مولانا الخان ذو الجود والإحسان عالي القدر والشان السيد السند والملاد المعتمد سلالة الرسول ومشكاة الزهاء البتول سلالة السادات الانجاب وثمرة دوحة آل أبا تراب السيد محمد خان بهادر شير جنك مد ظله العالي وكفاه شرط ورق الأيام والليالي في بلدة مرشداباد من إقليم الهند ملك بنكاله بقلم أحقر العباد لله الغني بدر الدين بن سيد حسين ولد سيد محمد رفيع الحسني المخاوي اليمني المناني وصلى الله على سيدنا محمد وآله وأصحابه وسلم تسليما كثيرا والحمد لله رب العالمين ونلتمس من كل من يطالع فيه أن يصلح ما فسد منه ولا يجعل بسببه الكاتب لان القلب مشغول والله مطلع على ما أقول. إن تجد عيبا فسد الخللا *** جل من لا عيب فيه وعلا

This manuscript was copied by a Badr al-Dīn ibn Sayyid Ḥusayn walad Sayyid Muḥammad Rafīʿ al-Ḥassanī al-Makhāwī al-Yamanī. His family therefore hailed from Makhā (Mocha) in Yemen. He was employed to write this manuscript for Muḥammad Khān Bahādur Shīr-Jang, who lived in Murshidabad.

That the manuscript was copied in 1198AH or 1784AD means that Jones was already in India when the manuscript was produced.

According to Dennison Ross and Browne, copies of this commentary in manuscript form are very rare. However, it has since been published in Arabic, edited by Aḥmad Khaṭṭāb, under the title Sharḥ al-qaṣāʾid al-tisʿ al-mashhūrāt(Baghdad: Wizārat al-Iʿlām, Mudīrīyat al-Thaqāfah al-ʿĀmmah, 1973).

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Thin cream woven paper.
Extent: ff. iv+113+v
Dimensions (leaf): 265 × 190 mm.
Dimensions (written): 195 × 125 mm.
Foliation:

European numerals in pencil.

Condition

Detached binding. The manuscript is considerably damaged by worms and in some places this affects the text itself. Many folios are loose and quite a number are very smudged or have sustained other damage (such as ink spills, finger marks etc.)

Layout

Hand(s)

Neat black naskh with many rubrications. Copious mistakes throughout the MS which have been corrected. Copied by Badr al-Dīn ibn Sayyid Ḥusayn walad Sayyid Muḥammad Rafīʿ al-Ḥassanī al-Makhāwī al-Yamanī.

Decoration

Additions:

Catchwords are present on every page.

Towards the start of the manuscript there are several lines which have been highlighted through curly brackets and underlining.

Binding

Red leather European-style Indian binding with a circular stamped frieze pattern.

Accompanying Material

History

Origin: 24_Rabīʿ al-Awwal_1198 AH; 16 February 1784 CE ; India

Provenance and Acquisition

RSPA 1-118 were presented to the Royal Society in January 1792 by Sir William and Lady Jones. This manuscript was presented by Lady Jones, according to Wilkins.

The Royal Society's collection of 280 Persian and Arabic, and 86 Sanskrit manuscripts were transferred to the India Office Library in 1876.

1876

India Office Library

Record Sources

Manuscript description based on E. Denison Ross and E. G. Browne, Catalogue of two collections of Persian and Arabic manuscripts preserved in the India Office Library (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1902), p. 69-9 no. CIV

Availability

Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader's card for admissions procedures contact British Library, Registering for a Reader Pass. Contact apac-enquiries@bl.uk for further information on the availability of this manuscript. For information on catalogues and ordering manuscripts see Finding and ordering Persian manuscripts in the British Library.

Funding of Cataloguing

BL


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